Fashion Retailing- Everything You Need To Know

Fashion retailing covers stores that sell clothes from another manufacturer. This type of store doesn’t produce clothes. Instead, they buy from manufacturers and then resell to the public. There are different sides to retailing as it doesn’t just sell the clothes from the manufacturer. Many varying factors come into play when it comes to fashion retailing. Overall, it is the link between a product manufacturer and the consumer. 

A fashion retailer doesn’t have to buy from a single manufacturer; they sell fashion items from various manufacturers. Since they’re in charge of attracting the customer’s attention and making them interested in the product, they’re constantly aware of their desires. Additionally, a retailer notices changes in taste and style and understands how to put together an outfit that looks appealing to customers. 

As a result, many people today are choosing the fashion retailing path. Therefore, this article provides insight into fashion retailing and everything you need to know about this career path.

Fashion Retailing – Top Fashion Retailers

To succeed in a fast-moving market like fashion, there’s a need to adapt to consumers’ expectations and learn how to differentiate your brand from the crowd. Today, top fashion retailers are learning new ways to improve the customer experience while standing out from the crow. This article provides insight into the leading fashion retailers you should learn from.

ASOS

A conversation about fashion retailing won’t be complete without mentioning ASOS. This fashion retail company remains the undisputed online fashion retail world leader. It is a brand synonymous with exceptional user experience. This brand not only delivers to most countries around the world, but they also offer their customers free returns. You can usually find most of what you’re looking for on the ASOS website. Whether you’re looking for an outfit to go out in, sportswear, maternity wear, officewear, or something you’re comfortable with lounging around the house, ASOS has options for you to select from. 

It also offers various sizes, whether tall, plus size, curvy, petite, or other options. Regarding technology integration, ASOS has strong distribution links set up on its website to ensure fast international delivery. There’s also the availability of advanced software like visual searching. This tool helps customers find items if they have a picture of what they’re looking for.

The Gap

It’s hard to talk about fashion retailing without mentioning The Gap. This company was founded in 1969 by the Fisher family. The first shop opened in San Francisco, and this retail company has grown since then. Doris and Donald Fisher invested over $60,000 into the company and recorded over $2 million in sales after two years. Therefore, it can as no surprise when this fashion retailer began to expand significantly. Soon this fashion retailer owned 25 stores by 1973. The followed decade brought about widespread expansion for the company. The company began to enter international markets and soon became known as one of the leading fashion retailers in the industry.

The Gap is the go-to fashion retailer for jeans. This company offers jeans like thin, tall, petite, and plus-size jeans. However, that’s not all this company stocks. The Gap also offers consumers hoodies, loungewear, t-shirts, pajamas, sweatshirt, shoes, and many others for every gender. In addition, they ship internationally to companies that don’t have a brick-and-mortar store. Over the years, Gap acquired other companies like Banana Republic, Old Navy, Intermix, and many more. The company manages over 3,165 stores spread across 90 countries. Although the Fishers are no longer responsible for the day-to-day running of The Gap, they still own 44% of the company. 

H&M

Another fashion retailing company to note is H&M. this company came quite close to ASOS and was founded in 1947 by Erling Persson in Sweden. Originally, H&M was a women’s clothing retail store. However, it expanded to men’s clothing after acquiring a men’s clothing brand. H&M acquired many companies like Cheap Monday, COS, Monki, Weekday, and many more. H&M is available in over 47 online and 71 physical markets. The fashion retailing company also controls thousands of stores around the world. The Persson family still controls the brand and holds a 46% stake in the company.

Inditex

Inditex is the most prominent fashion group globally and owns Zara, a famous fast-fashion brand. This family business began in 1975 when Ortega and his wide Rosalia decided to open a small clothing retail store in Spain. Although the store started as Zara, they soon changed the name to Zara when they discovered another business went by the name. One of the reasons the company went popular is its design and distribution method which significantly reduced the design, production, and distribution time. In addition, the company implemented emerging computer technology in its process. 

Today, Zara is amongst the leading fast fashion companies in the world. They also operate an efficient supply and inventory system that allows them to reproduce the latest designs from fashion shows as affordable clothing for the mass market. Today, Inditex controls several other fashion brands like Massimo Dutti, Oycho, Stradivarius, etc. The company operates in 76 countries around the world.

Nordstrom

Nordstrom is another fashion retailing company we cannot ignore. The company has over 300 fashion stores across the US and Puerto Rico. Originally, Nordstrom started as a shoe retailing store in 1901 but expanded over the decades to include other clothing types. Today, Nordstrom offers dresses, shirts, accessories, suits, and more. The company stocks its collection from top international brands like Givenchy, Emporio Armani, Versace, and LOEWE. The company also ships to international countries despite having stores in Puerto Rico, Canada, and the US.

Zalando

This is a German fashion retailing company based online. This company is fast growing in popularity in Europe. It is available in European countries like the Netherland, the UK, Spain, Italy, France, and more. However, it doesn’t ship outside Europe. This company sells hundreds of thousands of clothing items aimed at men and women. This includes shoes, jeans, trousers, sportswear and many more. To offer a wide variety of fashion items to its customers, Zolanda stocks up on items from over 1,500 brands, including popular brands like Michael Kors, Adidas, the French Connection, and Nike.

Macy’s 

A popular fashion retailing company in the US is Macy’s. This company is famous as one of the largest chains of department stores in America, Guam, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Although its flagship is in Manhattan, Macy’s is famous worldwide. The flagship store has featured in several TV shows over the years. This company sells men’s and women’s clothing. In addition, they also retail children’s clothing, accessories, jewelry, and handbags. The brand stocks items from thousands of brands, including luxury brands like Chanel, Calvin Klein, Burberry, Dolce Gabbana, etc. Additionally, Macy’s ships to different countries and foreign territories like Brazil, the United Kingdom, Australia, and many more.

Four Tips for Running a Successful Fashion Retailing Business

Fashion is an industry that continually evolves and requires new trends. Although several fashion retailing stores are available, you can run a successful fashion retailing store with the right tips. However, it will require hard work, planning, dedication, and much more. This section covers the top four tips to help you become a successful retailer.

Understand Your Market

An essential feature of running a successful fashion retailing business is knowing your market. There are different markets in the fashion industry, so it’s not a one-size fit. You must have a strong strategy available when you are marketing your products. Narrow down your target market at the beginning. Do you want to sell children’s clothing items, or do you want to market fashion items for teenage girls? Whatever your choice is, you have to start by thoroughly understanding your market and what they like to wear. This is important when you want people to buy clothing items from you.

Choose the Ideal Location

If you’re looking to start with a physical store, then the location needs to be perfect. If you choose to open a mall, you’ll be closer to the competition. You can decide to open a bit further away, but you also need to consider how easy it would be for your consumers to get to you. Consider if your location is too far and if your potential customers would be willing to travel to meet you.

Going the Online Route

Many stores out there start online or at least have an eCommerce aspect of their business that allows consumers to make purchases from the comfort of their homes. For example, when opening a fashion retailing business, you have the advantage that people would still visit a physical store to try on clothes. However, online shopping is still important, with digitization taking over the industry. 

Product Display

You should also consider how you will be displaying products once you launch your fashion retail store. It makes all the difference and can determine how well you sell. Products are usually categorized by their type or displayed in a set of pieces that work together. You can also use mannequins to display your product in physical stores. 

There’s a need to consider what your customers will see when they open the website for online stores. They can see the product, so the listings need to be quite descriptive. It will give the customers a clear idea of what they will be purchasing. You can also shoot some product videos to see how the fashion item looks from different angles.

Running a successful fashion retail store requires a lot of work. However, these strategies will help you build customers’ interest in your offering. 

Final Thoughts

Fashion retailing is continually growing, and more stores are popping up with technological advancement. This is great for the fashion industry as it also increases the number of opportunities in the fashion industry. However, there are also challenges to note as the market is saturated. However, by following the lead of these fashion retailing companies and the tips provided above, your fashion retailing business is headed for success. 

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Fashion Retailing- Everything You Need To Know Fashion retailing is growing with new fashion stores popping up. Find out everything you need to know in this article.
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